Euronews

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined ministers from seventy countries at a meeting in Turkey on Sunday to find ways of supporting the Syrian opposition.

Ahead of the ‘Friends of Syria’ conference, several delegates called for President Bashar al Assad to put in motion the first steps of a six-point peace plan which Damascus says its has accepted.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN Security Council to offer further support to the Syrian people. Both China and Russia, two of Syria’s allies, have previously blocked UN resolutions.

Erdogan said the international community would “have no choice but to support the right of Syrians to self-defence,” if the Security Council fails to act.

Meanwhile in a sign that the political and armed factions of the Syrian opposition were now working together, the President of Syrian National Council told delegates in Istanbul that his movement would now pay the salaries of the Free Syrian Army to help bolster their rebellion against Assad’s regime.